Anything you can do with Poser, you can also do with Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop, but it'll tyake about five times as long as Poser has a more workable interface for 3D imaging and backgrounds.

No matter which software you plan to use, you will need to commit probably a year of your time leanring it and toying about with it before you produce a piece that looks reasonably like anything you see on the net.

My best advice would be to save the $219 for Poser (or the $109 for Paint Shop Pro) and spend $35 to join a 3D art website and let others do the work for you.

Even better, just look around the free TGP sites and you'll probably get more than you wanted for free.